october 2012 - TOJET the Turkish online journal of educational ...

TOJET: The Turkish Online Journal of Educational Technology – October 2012, volume 11 Issue 4
McNamara, 2005; Langston & Graesser, 1993) to ask questions in a psychology course, and this study pointed
out that the frequency of asking questions was 127.2 questions per student per hour in the P&Q system. The
NATA system (Not afraid to ask) (Chu et al., 2007) was also developed to overcome the pressure of questioning.
123 college students used this system to ask questions in an introductory computer science course. The results of
a questionnaire survey showed that more students preferred to ask questions in this system than in the classroom.
And the in-system questioning frequency was far greater than the in-classroom questioning frequency.
In addition to increasing questioning frequency, the online questioning system also provides other advantageous
functions. For example, questions and responses can be easily accessed, updated, maintained, and managed (Yu,
Liu, & Chan, 2005), and therefore students have more opportunities to reflect, internalize, and increase practical
debating skills (Ng’ambi & Hardman, 2004; Kuminek & Pilkington, 2001). In DFAQ (Dynamic Frequently
Asked Questions environment), learners asked questions and responded to posted questions. During a two-hour
session, twenty-five learners asked 154 questions. And these stored information (questions and responses)
became an important resource for a learner community (Ng’ambi & Hardman, 2004). The QSIA (Question
Sharing and Interactive Assignments) system (Barak & Rafaeli, 2004) was used in a postgraduate MBA course.
This study examined the learning effects of merging question-posing, peer assessment and the attitude toward
QSIA . Results indicated that students were highly engaged in online question-posing and peer-assessment
activities, and gained higher scores on final examination. A QSIA study also found that online questioningsupported
learning could promote active learning, constructive criticism, and knowledge sharing.
The QBISS (Question-Based Instructional Support System) provided an environment for vocational school
students to engage in online questioning activities in class. The system has questioning, answering, and
evaluating functions. A QBISS study found that students’ questions were mostly factual and there was no
significant difference between the learning effects of the QBISS and the classroom groups, although students
kept a positive attitude toward QBISS (Liao, 2007). QBISS also was applied to a basic computer concept course
for vocational school senior students as an after-school learning aid (Wang, 2008). An experimental group of 50
students used QBISS after school, while a control group of 50 students asked questions in the classroom. The
results showed that the experimental group had a better achievement than the control group, in particular a
higher frequency of questioning and responding.
2.4. Question types
Question type has been extensively studied in questioning research. Graesser, Person, and Huber (1992)
developed a taxonomy of questions according to cognitive science. Their taxonomy includes eighteen types:
verification, disjunctive, concept completion, feature, feature specification, quantification, definition, example,
comparison, interpretation, causal antecedent, causal consequence, goal orientation, instrumental/procedural
enablement, judgmental, expectational, assertion, and request/directive. Costa, Caldeira, Gallastegui, and Otero
(2000) used this taxonomy to explore the question types, numbers, and quality of 289 students (grades 8, 10, and
12). Results showed that students could ask many questions and generate a large volume of causal-antecedent
questions related to science texts. However, no clear effects were found with regard to achievement and task
type.
King (1994) mentioned three question-types: factual questions, comprehensive questions and integrative
questions. These three types have the functions of knowledge integration, knowledge assimilation and
knowledge representation, respectively. Scardamalia and Bereiter (1992) investigated the ability of elementary
school students to ask and recognize educationally productive questions. Their study defined three questiontypes:
basic information questions, uneducated guess questions, and wonderment questions. Basic information
questions and uneducated guess questions are basic questions which usually have fixed or simple yes-no
answers. wonderment questions reflect students’ curiosity, puzzlement, and skepticism. Their findings showed
that students will adjust the questioning type according to their own knowledge level. Lacking domain
knowledge, pupils will ask basic questions; students possessing more domain knowledge will ask higher-level
questions.
2.5. Question Quality
Grasser and Person (1994) indicated that there may be three reasons for the low questioning frequency and lack
of consideration of question quality. First, students have difficulty in identifying a knowledge deficit. Second,
students have difficulty in detecting contradictory information. And third, students lack good questioning skills.
In their study, degree of specification, content, and question-generation were used to analyze the quality of
college students’ questions. Results showed that students’ achievement was positively correlated with the quality
of their questions.
Some studies analyzed the levels of questions, and characterized the nature of high-level questions. Grasser and
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